1. Report: U.S. abortion rate at lowest since 1973
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. abortion rate declined to its lowest level since 1973, and the number of abortions fell by 13 percent between 2008 and 2011, according to the latest national survey of abortion providers conducted by a prominent research institute.
The Guttmacher Institute, which supports legal access to abortion, said in a report being issued Monday that there were about 1.06 million abortions in 2011 — down from about 1.2 million in 2008. Guttmacher’s figures are of interest on both sides of the abortion debate because they are more up-to-date and in some ways more comprehensive than abortion statistics compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the report, the abortion rate dropped to 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 2011, well below the peak of 29.3 in 1981 and the lowest since a rate of 16.3 in 1973.
Guttmacher and other groups supporting abortion rights have been apprehensive about the recent wave of laws restricting abortion access that have been passed in Republican-controlled legislatures. However, the report’s authors said the period that they studied — 2008 to 2011 — predates the major surge of such laws starting with the 2011 legislative session.
2. Sochi city hall orders killing of stray dogs
SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Thousands of stray dogs have been living amid the mud and rubble of Olympic construction sites, roaming the streets and snowy mountainsides, and begging for scraps of food.
But as the games drew near, authorities have turned to a company to catch and kill the animals so they don’t bother Sochi’s new visitors — or even wander into an Olympic event.
Alexei Sorokin, director general of pest control firm Basya Services, told The Associated Press that his company had a contract to exterminate the animals throughout the Olympics, which open Friday.
Sorokin described his company as being involved in the “catching and disposing” of dogs, although he refused to specify how the dogs would be killed or say where they would take the carcasses.
The dogs have been causing numerous problems, Sorokin said Monday, including “biting children.”
3. Syrian airstrikes kill at least 18 in Aleppo
BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government extended its intense aerial campaign against rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, conducting a series of airstrikes that killed at least 18 people, including five children, activists said.
President Bashar al-Assad’s air force has pounded opposition areas of the divided city since mid-December, reducing apartment blocks to rubble and overwhelming already strapped hospitals and medical clinics with the wounded. On Sunday, government aircraft also targeted areas of east Aleppo under rebel control, killing nearly 40 people.
Monday’s air raids hit the districts of Hanano, Qadi Askar and Mouwasalat, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The group, which monitors the conflict through a network of activists on the ground, said helicopters dropped crude bombs — barrels packed with explosives, fuel and scraps of metal — on the neighborhoods, causing immense damage.
Amateur videos posted online provided a window on the carnage.
4. U.S. farm bill to cause large changes for every American
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cuts to food stamps, continued subsidies to farmers and victories for animal rights advocates. The massive, five-year farm bill heading toward final passage this week has broad implications for just about every American, from the foods we eat to what we pay for them.
Support for farmers through the subsidies included in the legislation helps determine the price of food and what is available. And money for food stamps helps the neediest Americans who might otherwise go hungry.
The legislation could reach President Barack Obama later this week. The House already has passed the bipartisan measure and the Senate was scheduled to pass the bill this week after a test vote Monday.
5. Man says he ate birds, turtles in 13 months adrift
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It’s a story that almost defies belief: A man leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months on fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands thousands of miles away.
But that’s what a man identifying himself as 37-year-old Jose Salvador Alvarenga told the U.S. ambassador in the Marshall Islands and the nation’s officials during a 30-minute meeting Monday before he was taken to a local hospital for monitoring. Alvarenga washed ashore on the tiny atoll of Ebon in the Pacific Ocean last week before being taken to the capital, Majuro, on Monday.
“It’s hard for me to imagine someone surviving 13 months at sea,” Ambassador Tom Armbruster in Majuro said. “But it’s also hard to imagine how someone might arrive on Ebon out of the blue. Certainly this guy has had an ordeal, and has been at sea for some time.”
Other officials were reacting cautiously to the Spanish-speaking man’s story while they try to piece together more information.
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